Growing organizational change: Applying a biomimicry lens to community-based food system study in a large undergraduate class
Yona Sipos, PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia-Vancouver, Canada [ysipos@gmail.com]
Art Bomke, Emeritus Professor, University of British Columbia-Vancouver, Canada [fert@mail.ubc.ca]
Keywords: Food systems, community-based experiential learning, case study, community engaged scholarship, change process
Conference track: Organizational change and sustainability
Format: Poster presentation
Summary
We present the case study of a Land, Food, and Community II course with an enrollment of approximately 200 students per class. This case of organizational change within a large, required undergraduate class explores the integration and uptake of CBEL (community-based experiential learning) over four years with 800 students and 60 community partners from 18 regions of urban, suburban, and rural British Columbia, Canada at the University of British Columbia.
The multidisciplinary theme of food systems provides rich and diverse terrain to explore sustainability issues within food production, processing, distribution, access, consumption, and waste management, as well as food education, policy, and programs. Through action research (Stringer, 2007) over multiple years, the course and embedded food system project have moved through the stages of community inquiry to community engagement and arguably, community engaged scholarship (see Rojas, Sipos, & Valley, 2012).
We discuss this case as a microcosm of broader investigations into growing community-university collaborations in large classes by using a biomimetic metaphor based on systems and complexity approaches. Biomimicry refers to innovation and design inspired by nature (Benyus, 1997). Specifically, we share the change processes that have moved the Land, Food, and Community II class from community inquiry to community engagement, by incorporating community-based research and community service-learning. Findings from student feedback and community partner interviews help to shed light on strategies that have been most successful, as well as strategies still in development to contribute the sustainability of the community food system project. We document support for community-university collaboration at the faculty and institutional levels, as well as factors that affect the strength of community partnerships, potential of the student projects, and ongoing attempts to integrate across 30 diverse projects per year.
References
Beiler, K. J., Durall, D. M., Simard, S. W., Maxwell, S. A., & Kretzer, A. M. (2010). Mapping the wood-wide web: Mycorrhizal networks link multiple Douglas-fir cohorts. New Phytologist, 185, 543–553.
Benyus, J. (1997). Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature. New York, NY: William Morrow.
Boothroyd, P., & M. Fryer. (2004, December). Mainstreaming social engagement in higher education: Benefits, challenges, and successes. Paper presented at the meeting of the Colloquium on Research and Higher Education Policy, Knowledge, Access and Governance: Strategies for Change, Paris, France.
Brundrett, M. C. (2009). Mycorrhizal associations and other means of nutrition of vascular plants: Understanding the global diversity of host plants by resolving conflicting information and developing reliable means of diagnosis. Plant and Soil: International Journal on Plant-Soil Relationships, 320, 37–77.
Butin, D. W. (2006). The limits to service-learning in higher education. The Review of Higher Education,29(4), 473–498.
Carter, M., Cadge, W., Rivero, E., & Curran, S. (2002). Designing your community-based experiential learning project: Five questions to ask about your pedagogical and participatory goals. Teaching Sociology, 30, 158–173.
Engeström, Y. (2007). From communities of practice to mycorrhizae. In J. Hughes, N. Jewson, & L. Unwin (Eds.), Communities of practice: Critical perspectives. London, UK: Routledge.
Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp.105-117). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Rojas, A. (2009) Towards integration of knowledge through sustainability education and its potential contribution to environmental security. In S. Allen-Gill, L. Stelljas, & O. Borysova (Eds.), NATO Science for Peace and Security Series – C: Environmental Security. Addressing global environmental security through innovative educational curricula (pp. 131-154). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
Rojas, A., Sipos, Y., & Valley, W. (2012). Reflection on 10 years of community-engaged scholarship in the faculty of land and food systems at the University of British Columbia-Vancouver. Journal of Higher Education, Outreach and Engagement, 16(1), 195–211.
Sipos, Y., Battisti, B., & Grimm, K. (2008) Achieving transformative sustainability learning: A united pedagogy of head, hands, and heart. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(1), 68-86.
Stoecker, R. (2008). Challenging institutional barriers to community-based research. Action Research,6(1), 49–67.
Stringer, E. T. (2007). Action Research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Ward, K. A. & Wolf-Wendel, L. (2000). Community-centred service learning: Moving from doing on to doing with. American Behavioral Scientist,43, 767-780.
Growing organizational change: Applying a biomimicry lens to community-based food system study in a large undergraduate class
Yona Sipos, PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia-Vancouver, Canada [ysipos@gmail.com]
Art Bomke, Emeritus Professor, University of British Columbia-Vancouver, Canada [fert@mail.ubc.ca]
Keywords: Food systems, community-based experiential learning, case study, community engaged scholarship, change process
Conference track: Organizational change and sustainability
Format: Poster presentation
Summary
We present the case study of a Land, Food, and Community II course with an enrollment of approximately 200 students per class. This case of organizational change within a large, required undergraduate class explores the integration and uptake of CBEL (community-based experiential learning) over four years with 800 students and 60 community partners from 18 regions of urban, suburban, and rural British Columbia, Canada at the University of British Columbia.
The multidisciplinary theme of food systems provides rich and diverse terrain to explore sustainability issues within food production, processing, distribution, access, consumption, and waste management, as well as food education, policy, and programs. Through action research (Stringer, 2007) over multiple years, the course and embedded food system project have moved through the stages of community inquiry to community engagement and arguably, community engaged scholarship (see Rojas, Sipos, & Valley, 2012).
We discuss this case as a microcosm of broader investigations into growing community-university collaborations in large classes by using a biomimetic metaphor based on systems and complexity approaches. Biomimicry refers to innovation and design inspired by nature (Benyus, 1997). Specifically, we share the change processes that have moved the Land, Food, and Community II class from community inquiry to community engagement, by incorporating community-based research and community service-learning. Findings from student feedback and community partner interviews help to shed light on strategies that have been most successful, as well as strategies still in development to contribute the sustainability of the community food system project. We document support for community-university collaboration at the faculty and institutional levels, as well as factors that affect the strength of community partnerships, potential of the student projects, and ongoing attempts to integrate across 30 diverse projects per year.
References
Beiler, K. J., Durall, D. M., Simard, S. W., Maxwell, S. A., & Kretzer, A. M. (2010). Mapping the wood-wide web: Mycorrhizal networks link multiple Douglas-fir cohorts. New Phytologist, 185, 543–553.
Benyus, J. (1997). Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by nature. New York, NY: William Morrow.
Boothroyd, P., & M. Fryer. (2004, December). Mainstreaming social engagement in higher education: Benefits, challenges, and successes. Paper presented at the meeting of the Colloquium on Research and Higher Education Policy, Knowledge, Access and Governance: Strategies for Change, Paris, France.
Brundrett, M. C. (2009). Mycorrhizal associations and other means of nutrition of vascular plants: Understanding the global diversity of host plants by resolving conflicting information and developing reliable means of diagnosis. Plant and Soil: International Journal on Plant-Soil Relationships, 320, 37–77.
Butin, D. W. (2006). The limits to service-learning in higher education. The Review of Higher Education, 29(4), 473–498.
Carter, M., Cadge, W., Rivero, E., & Curran, S. (2002). Designing your community-based experiential learning project: Five questions to ask about your pedagogical and participatory goals. Teaching Sociology, 30, 158–173.
Engeström, Y. (2007). From communities of practice to mycorrhizae. In J. Hughes, N. Jewson, & L. Unwin (Eds.), Communities of practice: Critical perspectives. London, UK: Routledge.
Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp.105-117). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Rojas, A. (2009) Towards integration of knowledge through sustainability education and its potential contribution to environmental security. In S. Allen-Gill, L. Stelljas, & O. Borysova (Eds.), NATO Science for Peace and Security Series – C: Environmental Security. Addressing global environmental security through innovative educational curricula (pp. 131-154). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer.
Rojas, A., Sipos, Y., & Valley, W. (2012). Reflection on 10 years of community-engaged scholarship in the faculty of land and food systems at the University of British Columbia-Vancouver. Journal of Higher Education, Outreach and Engagement, 16(1), 195–211.
Sipos, Y., Battisti, B., & Grimm, K. (2008) Achieving transformative sustainability learning: A united pedagogy of head, hands, and heart. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 9(1), 68-86.
Stoecker, R. (2008). Challenging institutional barriers to community-based research. Action Research, 6(1), 49–67.
Stringer, E. T. (2007). Action Research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Ward, K. A. & Wolf-Wendel, L. (2000). Community-centred service learning: Moving from doing on to doing with. American Behavioral Scientist, 43, 767-780.
Williams, D. R., & Brown, J. D. (2011). Living soil and sustainability education: Linking pedagogy and pedology. Journal of Sustainability Education, 2. Retrieved from http://www.jsedimensions.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/WilliamsBrown2011.pdf
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